Man charged in Christmas Day killings in Maine had been sought in hit-and-run in New York

This photo provided by Kennebec County Jail shows David Marble Jr. The New York man was charged Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015 in the killings of an Augusta couple who were found shot to death early on Christmas Day on a dirt road just outside town. (Kennebec County Jail via AP)
(The Associated Press)

AUGUSTA, Maine – A man charged with fatally shooting a couple inside their SUV on Christmas Day was being sought by police in his hometown of Rochester, New York, for a hit-and-run that left a pedestrian seriously injured, police said.

David Marble Jr., 29, was accused of fleeing from the accident in July that tossed a pedestrian 5 feet in the air, and Rochester police have been looking for him since Oct. 30, an investigator told the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester.

Marble was living in an apartment in Augusta when state police say he shot and killed Eric Williams, 35, and Bonnie Royer, 26, early on Christmas Day.

One of the victims called 911 from an isolated dirt road in Manchester, about a mile from their Augusta home. Responding officers found both of them dead. Police say the killing was drug-related.

Family members of Williams and Royer have planned a memorial vigil for the couple Friday evening outside their Augusta home.

Officials are mum on details of the investigation, and state police affidavits supporting the arrest are sealed.

Marble was being held at the Kennebec County Jail on Thursday, a day after he made his first court appearance. Pamela Ames, one of two attorneys who represented Marble, said she wasn't ready to comment.

In Rochester, Marble was convicted of committing third-degree robbery in 2011. In 2007, he was sentenced to probation on a drug charge.

He faces charges including second-degree assault and leaving the scene of an accident that caused serious injury in the hit-and-run crash in Rochester. The victim, a 50-year-old man, suffered a cracked pelvis, a broken leg, damaged hips and brain damage, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.

Authorities in Monroe County, New York, are working with law enforcement officials in Maine.

Jerry Bunton, brother of the victim in the hit-and-run, told the Kennebec Journal that he wishes Marble had been behind bars in New York facing the charges resulting from the accident.

"When I saw that two people were killed and now their families have to go through the same thing we went through, I just wanted to scream," Bunton said.